Americas

Last week, 55.47% of voters in Seattle’s District 3 chose Kshama Sawant
of Socialist Alternative to serve another four years on the City
Council. Following this ground-breaking result, Kshama sent the
following message to the ‘Socialism’ event, hosted by the Socialist
Party (CWI England & Wales), in London.

Socialistworld.net

Sisters, Brothers, Comrades,

It gives me great pleasure to bring you all warm, comradely greetings
from Socialist Alternative in the United States.

Earlier this week in Seattle, we succeeded in winning my re-election as
a Socialist Alternative city council member. This is an historic
achievement for workers in Seattle and throughout America. A veritable
army of 600 working class volunteers and 30 unions defeated the combined
forces of big business and the political establishment that cravenly
serves corporate interests.

My opponent was financially backed by millionaire executives of
corporations like Microsoft, Amazon.com, Alaska Airlines; by every
business that fought against our historic $15 an hour movement last
year; by every anti-union business entity, such as the Washington
Restaurant Association and the Hotel Association; and by giant city
developers who are making profits hand over fist as working people get
pushed out of the city due to skyrocketing rents. My opponent’s campaign
was fully backed by Republicans and ’big money’ Democrats.

In contrast, we ran an unapologetically anti-corporate, pro-working
class campaign that did not take a dime from corporate interests, but
was funded only by ordinary working people and by the labour movement.

The monumental scale of our grassroots campaign is a testament to the
hunger of the American working class for a bold and clear alternative to
the bankrupt politics of both the Democratic and Republican Party
establishments.

It also reflects how Socialist Alternative has earned the confidence of
Seattle’s working people, by using our position on the City Council to
relentlessly push for their interests and everyone who is marginalised
by the system.

In our two years on the Council, we not only won the $15 wage, we also
successfully fought against public housing rent hikes, won millions for
human services in the city budget, actively assisted the recent historic
and successful teachers’ strike, and replaced Columbus Day with a
citywide Indigenous People’s Day.

We have shown that the election of a socialist in a major US city was
not a flash in the pan, but that socialist politics are here to stay in
Seattle. We have given a genuine socialist expression to the deep
discontent and anger of working people at income, racial and gender
inequality. We are doing this by campaigning for rent control, fighting
the slumlords, and demanding that big developers and the rich are taxed
to pay for affordable housing and mass transit.

Our success comes at the same time that there is a growing enthusiasm at
the campaign of Bernie Sanders standing as a socialist for the
presidency of the United States. His call for a political revolution
against the billionaire class, while also refusing any corporate cash,
has opened up a new space for a discussion about socialist ideas, albeit
unfortunately within the context of a race in the corporate-dominated
Democratic Party.

The remarkable victory of Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the Labour
Party shows that the dissatisfaction with corporate-sponsored capitalist
politicians is a global phenomenon and provides new opportunities for
socialists everywhere to provide a real alternative to capitalism and
its attacks on working people.

The Committee for a Workers’ International is uniquely placed to provide
a clear analysis and programme. Socialist Alternative in the United
States looks forward with you in the UK to the victories of our comrades
in the Irish elections as they defy state repression fighting the hated
water tax.

I wish you every success with Socialism 2015 and with the wider struggle
against Tory austerity and pro-capitalist Blairism.